Jonathan Jackson, CEO of Previsico, discusses forecasting surface water flooding and scaling a university spin-out on Episode 30 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.

Previsico gives property-level flood warnings up to 48 hours ahead. Jackson explains that surface water is now close to 60% of UK flood risk, driven by a changing climate, urbanisation and ageing drainage. The company began as a Loughborough University spin-out built on Professor Dapeng Yu's flood model, with the UK government as its first customer, which reversed the usual startup order of finding a problem before building a product. Jackson traces the commercial journey from Innovate UK grant funding and an angel round through venture backing from Foresight Group, and into the US via a customer-led, site-by-site expansion rather than a country-by-country one.

This episode is relevant for climate adaptation founders, deep tech and university spin-out teams, insurtech and climate tech investors, and B2B founders working out how to sell a preventative product to a market that underestimates its own risk.

Guest profile

Jonathan Jackson is the CEO of Previsico. He describes himself as an entrepreneur rather than a scientist, having started in telecoms before building several businesses that moved offline industries online, including Farming Online, which he describes as the UK's longest-running B2B internet business. He joined Previsico after becoming entrepreneur in residence at Loughborough University, where he met the company's scientific founders and helped spin the business out.

Previsico is a flood forecasting company that provides property-level surface water flood warnings up to 48 hours in advance, combining a hydrodynamic flood model with real-time weather data and IoT sensors. The company was spun out of Loughborough University and works with insurers, corporates, councils and housing associations in the UK and, increasingly, the US.

Company website: https://previsico.com/

Find Jonathan Jackson on LinkedIn.

Topics covered

• Explaining flood forecasting simply, and the surface water flooding gap

• Why surface water is now the biggest and hardest-to-predict UK flood risk

• Launching with the product built and the government as first customer

• Working with academic founders versus commercial and developer teams

• Raising as a university spin-out: grants, angels and proof points

• Sequencing fundraising around insurer contracts and venture rounds

• Differences between UK and US investors and due diligence

• Customer-led international expansion versus country-by-country growth

• Marketing a preventative product to a market that underestimates its risk

• Case studies and social proof as the core marketing asset

• Selling climate adaptation without relying on climate belief

• Building a commercially driven business with a social mission

Episode summary

Darren Ralphs, Content Lead at Sylvera, discusses how B2B content strategy is adapting to AI search and LLM visibility on Episode 29 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.Ralphs argues that Sylvera's visibility in tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity depends less on publishing volume than on signalling recency and authority. He points to Sylvera's practice of mining long-tail search terms from sales calls and Notion documentation, a technique he links to stronger LLM citation performance. This approach, combined with a systematic refresh of ageing blog content, contributed to Sylvera topping Adopter's GEO readiness report on the climate data sector, ahead of every other company assessed.

This episode is relevant for founders resourcing a small marketing team, B2B marketing leads in climate tech, and content marketers exploring GEO and LLM visibility strategy.

Guest profile

Darren Ralphs is Content Lead at Sylvera. He joined the company in December 2024 and leads thought leadership and long-form content as the sole dedicated content marketer on Sylvera's marketing team, working alongside a product marketer and external SEO agencies. Sylvera assesses and rates the quality of carbon credit projects for both buyers and developers in the carbon markets. Founded in 2020, the company has grown from fewer than 10 people to around 150, with offices in the UK, New York, Singapore, and Japan. Sylvera's offering has expanded from carbon project ratings into a data platform, a geospatial product, and green commodities.

Explore the Sylvera website: https://www.sylvera.com

Find Darren Ralphs on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-ralphs

Topics covered

- Explaining content marketing using a simple analogy

- What Sylvera does and how its offering has expanded since 2020Sylvera's scale, customer base, and expansion into developer sales- Differentiating Sylvera through policy expertise and platform breadth

- The State of Carbon Credits report as an annual funnel-filling asset

- Measuring report success through database growth, signups, and SEO uplift

- Refreshing the top 50 blog posts and the resulting traffic uplift- Long-tail keyword strategy sourced from sales calls and internal documentation

- Adopter's GEO readiness research and Sylvera's top ranking

- Diversification risk and maintaining visibility across multiple product lines

- Building mid and lower funnel content by ICP

- Founder-led content and Sylvera's LinkedIn engagement gap- Using AI in the content production workflow

- Common AI writing tells and their effect on reader trust

Episode summaryDarren Clifford, Co-Founder of Adapt [us] Capital, discusses the investment case for climate adaptation on Episode 28 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter. Clifford argues that adaptation is more underfunded than mitigation, with roughly 0.25% of global capital flowing to it, despite demand for adaptation products rising predictably as the weather gets hotter and more volatile. Adapt [us] Capital backs pre-seed companies that meet three tests at once: a venture-grade team and market, demand driven by changing weather, and a measurable improvement to quality of life. He uses portfolio company Temperate, a passive radiative cooling business, to illustrate the thesis, alongside Bactery, which builds soil-based batteries for resilient backup power. Clifford frames the whole portfolio as a hedge against a future where changing climate could erode between 5% and 25% of global GDP by 2050.This episode is relevant for climate adaptation investors, pre-seed and seed-stage climate founders, family offices and high net worth LPs evaluating adaptation funds, and operators working on go-to-market for hardware and deep tech in new geographies.

Find out more about Adopter here: https://www.adopter.net/

Explore the Adapt [us] Capital website: https://aucap.vc/

Find Darren Clifford on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djclif/